schirallicpa

I think this is going to be my year for off-beat questions. Village received a grant that they disburse to residents for improvements to their property. The resident applies to the village, the village approves, the resident makes improvements and then submits proof of expense to village. Village hires someone independently to inspect property and "audit" the expenditures, and then issues a check payment to the resident. Does a 1099 need to be issued to the resident for that payment? I am thinking no, but I have seen it done before.

I thought if I put a blub here I'd get this back towards the top and see if anyone else now logging on would have any suggestions.

I use Medlin for payroll - we don't do that much. Frankly, I hate payroll, but we have a handful of clients that we help out. As far as QB goes, I've been trying to convince my clients to go with the online version. Then they just give me a password to access anytime. No need to get backup discs, or stix from them. No worry of which version it is. I make my changes and they don't have to go thru the trouble of making entries or getting a backup from me again. Works great. And I don't have to keep buying the new versions.

My best advertising when I got started was other tax preparers in town, believe it or not. They were turning new clients to me because they were already too busy. Shortly after that, H&R came to town:( However, I have had much luck as well with other professionals in town, including attorneys, bankers, and real estate profs. Don't waste money on phone book advertising, people use google to find you. I run a weekly ad in our local weekly Moneysaver now. I used to run in the daily paper, but didn't feel that that was beneficial. The moneysaver gets more readers than the daily paper. I still run on the radio only because I am friends with the station manager. Not sure if it is worth being on the local radio or not. I know I never listen to local radio. My 2 cents too.

The deed was set up with mothers life use, to transfer to the 3 children equally at her death. The sisters are not interested in the property, the brother is. So he paid them each $20000 for their share and change the deed so that he is the only person that the property transfers to at mothers death. I am thinking that is a sale. I want to think that he is just gifting some money to them, but he was actually buying them out of their share of a contract. He was pursuing economic reasons, as were they. hmmm......still thinking, and still not liking my answer............

Mother has life lease on house. It will be part of her estate. Originally set up to have the ownership transfer at death to brother and his two sisters. Sisters were not interested in house, and he wanted to get them "out of it" now. So he paid them each their agreed upon share of $20,000 each. Question is, is that taxable income to them. I think he has to issue each of them a 1099 for $20000 and they have to report as other income. They did not wait until it was truly inheritance, they were paid for their rights to it. Am I thinking right on this. (Obviously, I didn't like my answer.) Not sure why he was in a hurry to get them paid off, but I think the sisters were looking to get some money now. We're finally getting some snow up here in New York!

I had thought of that as well, and had also thought that maybe that wouldn't work with the k1 not matching up. Or should I say - no k-1 at all from the partnership. Thanks for your thoughts.

I will need to either put 2010 on my new pc, and then rollover. Or I will have to rollover, and then transfer. I'm confused. Is there an easy way to move stuff, or is my christmas holiday going to be spent at the office moving tax returns...........................................

My client is a small s-corp held by brother and sister. They own an adult home. Previously, the brother, who is the main shareholder of the corp, was a Partner in a partnership with sister and father. This partnership owned a large nursing home. The nursing home was sold a few years ago, the father passed away, his estate is closed, the partnership filed a final return in 2009. In both operations, the adult care home, and the nursing home, were previously under a self-insured workers comp plan, which was a group plan, along with a number of other nursing homes. Alas, someone was not paying their fair share of insurance, and being fraudulent in reporting, and now NYS is digging it all back up while the previous plans go insolvent. NYS is investing the fraud, but first it is assessing fees to all of these nursing homes that belonged in the plan. In 2011 NYS assesses every nursing home and adult care home that was in this plan - and they had to be paid. My client was afraid that his accounts would be seized if he didn't pay. The attorney said to pay. He paid. He took a management fee from his current S-corp to pay the old partnerships assessment. (His sister, who is also involved, is insolvent, and declaring personal bankruptcy. He did not want to "share" the management fee with her, since he was afriad such money would not get turned around to NYS as it was supposed to be.) So - the question is....how should we handle this so that he can at least get some sort of deduction for this. We considered opening up the partnership, and I don't want to do that, especially since it was really entangled with the estate of the father. We considered a new partnership. But without profit motive, that would be a lost cause. The management fee was the best we came up with, since at least the s-corp takes that deduction. However, he personally will pay tax on the fee, and he's the one footing the NYS bill for the old corp. Possible schedule A deduction? I would appreciate any insight on this one.

I'm not a lawyer, but I play one at least once a year in my little office off main street. I have a new client. His mother passed away recently. In 1996 paperwork was filed with the county office to convey house to my client and his sister. James is my client, Kay is his sister, Eloise is mother who died. Here's how the forms read: "Excepting and reserving to Eloise XXX a right of possession of the above described premises for and during her natural life. It being the intent of the grantor to convey to the grantees a one-half undivided interest as tenants in common with the grantor leaving the ownership in the premises as tenants in common as follows: James xxx and Kay XXX (1/2); Eloise XXX (1/2)." Okay - so now he and his sister have whole ownership. And now he wants to buy out his sister. First question is - what is the tax ramifications of all this. Now - I understand capital gains and all. - I think. But, he thinks that the house didn't become his (and sis's) until mother died. And it sounds like it was half his (and sis's) 15 years ago. No money transferred in 1996. Where do I start in calculating a cost basis? I appreciate anyone's help. Thanks!!

The $4500 is completely covered. No expense to show. Certainly not an improvement - not depreciated. No income to show. The extra $400 goes un-reported. Insurance is not taxable income.

A schedule C needs to be filed. If it is reimbursement of expense, then expense is listed to offset income. Remember - IRS says all income is subject to tax unless it is specifically excluded. Babysitting is not specifically excluded. Report it.

you're awesome

Hello everyone: I am teaching a tax class this semester as an adjunct at Alfred University. I am considering having the students do a tax case study as a homework project. Wondered if anyone had suggestions. They are mostly juniors and acctg majors. This is their first tax class. We are concentrating on individuals, and just brushing corps and partnerships late in the semester. I appreciate any input.

ok..... I found Sec 166 and read up on what I could. Leads me to the next question- Is her stock in the corp (29K) a 4797 loss or a Sch D loss. I had originally put that on Sch D as worthless stock. I am also now thinking of another client that had invested in his son's company that went belly up. That I had called worthless on Sch D limited to $3K loss. Maybe that should have been 4797.

I have a client who was a shareholder in a corp that just dissolved. The corp owed her $98K. Does this go as a worthless investment on Sch D? Or can she take elsewhere? Little too warm for the brain this afternoon....

Good point - thank you for your insight.

Taxpayer has small sole proprietor business, files sch C. He also works as well as his wife. His pay is garnished for the Chpt 13 pymts. Most of the debt that put them in bankruptcy is NYS sales tax, and payroll tax withholdings. I have prepared the return and anticipate a refund. Since they are in compliance with the Trustee, will the refund get pulled by the IRS, or NYS? Should I file an innocent spouse form for the wife to get her portion of the refund? I've not dealt with any bankruptcy situations before. But I know NYS is dirty and am wary that they may take the refund. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks~

I have never had a QBX file before. I have trained my clients to give me backups. But this is a new client. They have saved an acct's copy on flash as QBX. I have looked online and it says to go to the file menu, open util, and then convert. But my utility option is greyed out. I can't go that route. Any suggestions. Thanks. I hate quickbooks.....grumble....mumble......

there goes the rest of the tonor........

I had an elderly person this year for whom we file a return only to get a credit back on NYS. Turns out her SS# had already been used this year. We paper filed the return with explanation, and the lady's daughter contacted social security admin. Nothing resolved at this point, but NYS accepted the efile, so she got her credit!

income items such as dividends and interest may be distributed. But capital losses stay with the trust until the final year. The income distribution calculation on line 18 will "jump" you to the schedules you need to sort out distributable income. The program works nicely.

Before everything became computerized, my former employer had a client that claimed his dog for years. And one year I remember inputing a huge medical bill for the "dependent". I remember the day he learned that "Charles" was a pet not a child. I thought the roof was going to blow. Hey - that's my dog Vinny in my picture. I need to get him a soc number.

I was a little nervous about this - after all, don't like to get too technical with the computer stuff. But I had my client's broker send me an excel file of the data. Just save as a CSV, import from the sch D import tab, and presto. It worked great. Just kinda proud of myself.....

She also has earnings and can take the IRA - sorry.